Winchester resident co-chairs Massachusetts General Hospital gala

Thursday

Oct 29, 2015 at 4:01 PMOct 29, 2015 at 4:01 PM

The Massachusetts General Hospital Frontotemporal Disorders Unit hosted its inaugural gala, A Night with the Arts for FTD, at the Boston Harbor Hotel, raising close to $100,000 to support the FTD Unit. More than 200 guests attended the event, which featured an art show, silent auction, live music performance by a trio from the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra and an 18-piece swing band, After Hours.The event — chaired by a volunteer planning committee and co-chaired by Katie Brandt, community resource specialist at the MGH FTD Unit, and co-chair Liz Elefante, Winchester resident and former administrative assistant at the MGH FTD Unit – honored FTD patients, caregivers, family members, clinicians and researchers. The gala featured remarks by Brad Hyman, director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Unit at MGH, Katie Brandt, Cynthia Rozzi, family friend of the event’s featured artists, Brad Dickerson, MGH FTD Unit director and associate professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and Kemon and Sybil Sermos.Brandt’s late husband, Michael, was diagnosed with frontotemporal degeneration in 2009 when their son Noah was 10-months-old. Dickerson oversaw Michael’s care. Since her husband’s passing in 2012, Brandt has become a volunteer, advocate, educator and fundraiser in the FTD community. She has given presentations at colleges, conferences, hospitals, the Massachusetts Statehouse and Capitol Hill, sharing her family’s history with the rare disease.For information: ftd-boston.org/.